djaybi wrote:I was in Finland last week, and I got a parking ticket. I am back home in France now, and I don't know how to pay the parking ticket. Is it feasable online ? Or via money transfer ?

The ticket has a bank account number and name of a bank? Then you should find (I'd try Goggle, banks web page and if needed some customer service email) to find out the banks BIC code and the IBAN format long version of the bank account number. With those you should be able to pay the bill online using your regular internet banking (I assumme here that the French banks can handle SEPA payments by now)

Re: Experiences: Parking Fines

djaybi wrote:I was in Finland last week, and I got a parking ticket. I am back home in France now, and I don't know how to pay the parking ticket. Is it feasable online ? Or via money transfer ?

who's car were you in?

french registered: I doubt finland has an agreement with the french licencing authority to enforce the fine. If you won't bring the car to finland again then don't pay it.rental car: the rental car might handle the fine although in the UK the parking fines double if you don't pay within 14 days. So check with the rental car company. I rented a car in the USA and a parking fine was handled like that, being charged to my credit card without me even knowing. But I had been in Maryland and the fine was from NYC. I sent proof that I was in Maryland at the time of the ticket and they credited back the charge to my credit card.

These days those things are very international. My friend was in Bergen Norway last summer. Bergen has an automatic toll road system, you can't pay in cash, cars that are not in the local system are photographed. His car is registerd in Finland. Some months later he got a letter from a perintätoimisto in the United Kingdom with a photo of his car and a toll bill. So they found his home adress. He paid it.

Nice in theory, but I'm with riku2 on this. I've known several cases - both Finns driving abroad, and foreigners in foreign-registered vehicles driving in Finland - where a ticket has been issued, either for parking violations or sometimes for being caught by a speed camera. In most of those occasions, nothing has crossed border. I'm not saying it's impossible, and as automated systems and relational databases within the EU get better then it's going to become faster and more reliable across Europe as a whole... but at the moment, it's still fairly hit-and-miss. I'd say just leave it alone unless you're the conscientious type. You're more likely to get away with parking offences than other motoring offences due to the fact that most parking wardens are subcontracted from local private firms which don't have the time and money to chase down the occasional international offender. Speeding and other police-related offences are more likely to get you found via the trans-European databases and policing agreements (as per the Schengen Agreement - it's not just about passports, you know).

filecore wrote:You're more likely to get away with parking offences than other motoring offences due to the fact that most parking wardens are subcontracted from local private firms which don't have the time and money to chase down the occasional international offender.

I guess there is always some risk that they do (or will start at some later date) to sell those ticket to some international collecting agency (likelihood may be small ,on the other hand were to happen the costs to be collected would be much higher than original ticket)...?

within the EU get better then it's going to become faster and more reliable across Europe as a whole... but at the moment, it's still fairly hit-and-miss.

Iirc there was about two months ago an agreement reached about EU wide fines exchange.

And somehow Russians tend to drive _below_ the posted speed nowadays... I'd say their average speed has dropped by 20km/h at least. Of course there are still cars with long plates that seem to know when and where you can speed up, but they have probably observed enough locals to do so.

I have heard that they have problems getting to Finland again, if the computer says "unpaid fine".

filecore wrote:You're more likely to get away with parking offences than other motoring offences due to the fact that most parking wardens are subcontracted from local private firms which don't have the time and money to chase down the occasional international offender.

Parking wardens are not subcontracted, they can't be, by the current law. If parking warden asks for you ID you have to present it, if private contractor tries to do that... would you show your id to some random person from the street? If parking warden gives ticket to your car, you have to pay it. If private contractor does that, he has to prove who has entered into the parking agreement by driving the car. Thus local firms don't have time and money to chase down even the local offenders unless they plead guilty.

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Upphew wrote:Parking wardens are not subcontracted, they can't be, by the current law.

Really? Because the ones I've seen around wear their own uniforms and clearly aren't part of the national police force (traffic police). So who are they then? Because I'm pretty sure they're not the same ones, say, in Porvoo and Helsinki. In which case, if they're not police and they're not subcontracted, does each city council have some 'official' traffic warden service? In which case, why aren't their uniforms standardised?

In other EU countries, such as the UK, subcontracting such duties to private firms is normal. I'm sceptical about this not being the case in Finland, based on my own observations. Oh, probably they get special dispensation to demand IDs and fines as per the police force, but I'm pretty sure they're private.

filecore wrote:Really? Because the ones I've seen around wear their own uniforms and clearly aren't part of the national police force (traffic police).

The official traffic wardens are not part of the police force, but they are working on official capacity and by law their work can't be subcontracted. In addition to them there are then (operating on private areas) various parking services companies, which can also leave their tickets. Not paying those may get you in you in court, for a case that depending on circumstances you may win, but easiest of course would be to avoid the whole hassle.

I have been browsing through this looking for an answer to my situation. More precise, this morning I find a parking ticket attached to my car. However the registration number on the ticket is wrong and the last two digits are switched (from 34 to 43, for example). The 10.000 points question is what happens if I don't pay the fine? I know they also take pictures of the car, but I'm thinking to just ignore the ticket as there is issued to another car.

I have been browsing through this looking for an answer to my situation. More precise, this morning I find a parking ticket attached to my car. However the registration number on the ticket is wrong and the last two digits are switched (from 34 to 43, for example). The 10.000 points question is what happens if I don't pay the fine? I know they also take pictures of the car, but I'm thinking to just ignore the ticket as there is issued to another car.

if such registration doesn't exist, perhaps you might have a chance there. if does, then the owner of the car that bears the number plate mentioned in the ticket will definitely knock a door of concerned office ie. parking lot caretakers office... and they will check the pic and send you the bill perhaps including Intrum Justitia ones...

in the worst case, aside from the anxiety, you might get a black credit history.

edit: to be clearer, that parking lot supervising office won't let the ticket die out, so they will send reminder notice to the address of the owner of the car that has that number plate..... when unwanted bill comes, definitely he/She will complain about it.

Thanks for the reply! I forgot to mention that I have a car with foreign registration plates, so there is no car with that registration number in Finland for sure. I guess the only way they can connect to my car is to check the picture and see that there was a mistake and then contact Tulli (as foreign registered cars that stay here more than 6 months have to be registered at Tulli). Then they might find the owner of the car. But I am wondering if they can issue another ticket just because they did a mistake when issuing the ticket. One thing maybe worth mentioning is that I got the ticket from Espoon Kaupunki, as I was parking on the side of the street in the correct place, using the parking disc correctly, however, with the car NOT facing the direction of the lane next to the parking space (thus the parking ticket). I did not know abut this rule and I could not find any info on this in English also. I suppose a written warning would have been more adequate, given the car is not from Finland.

mariannn_b wrote:Thanks for the reply! I forgot to mention that I have a car with foreign registration plates, so there is no car with that registration number in Finland for sure. I guess the only way they can connect to my car is to check the picture and see that there was a mistake and then contact Tulli (as foreign registered cars that stay here more than 6 months have to be registered at Tulli). Then they might find the owner of the car. But I am wondering if they can issue another ticket just because they did a mistake when issuing the ticket. One thing maybe worth mentioning is that I got the ticket from Espoon Kaupunki, as I was parking on the side of the street in the correct place, using the parking disc correctly, however, with the car NOT facing the direction of the lane next to the parking space (thus the parking ticket). I did not know abut this rule and I could not find any info on this in English also. I suppose a written warning would have been more adequate, given the car is not from Finland.

Do you live in Finland or in some other country? Yeah, I know you are here now, but where are you registered as resident? If in Finland, you can't drive, legally, a car with foreign plates without the owner of said car being in the car and that owner being a resident in some other country.

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mariannn_b wrote:Thanks for the reply! I forgot to mention that I have a car with foreign registration plates, so there is no car with that registration number in Finland for sure. I guess the only way they can connect to my car is to check the picture and see that there was a mistake and then contact Tulli (as foreign registered cars that stay here more than 6 months have to be registered at Tulli). Then they might find the owner of the car. But I am wondering if they can issue another ticket just because they did a mistake when issuing the ticket.

I think they will take action once they realize that they have made a mistake... but by the time they realize, owner is already out of the country? but again.... such parking fines, library dues etc. are nasty b*ches.. which will definitely come to haunt you once you (/the car's owner) come to reside here again. btw, a couple of months ago, there was this 4000 miles car rally where foreign registered cars oversped and all. traffic issued tickets but they are not likely to ever get paid.

One thing maybe worth mentioning is that I got the ticket from Espoon Kaupunki, as I was parking on the side of the street in the correct place, using the parking disc correctly, however, with the car NOT facing the direction of the lane next to the parking space (thus the parking ticket). I did not know abut this rule and I could not find any info on this in English also. I suppose a written warning would have been more adequate, given the car is not from Finland.

You will get parking ticket for that. it's mentioned in the parking rules. ignorance is not inocence.